Pokemon Ebony and Ivory versions revised
by Emperor Eclipsis
Summary: A Pokémon story that’s reader friendly to readers not familiar to the world of Pkmn/total beginners. Rated M for blood and gore. It seemed to start like most, new region w/ new Pkmn. Ch 3: Adumbrated Thunder
1. Ch 1 Thoughts and Dreams

**Alex **

**July 8, 798 UNE Shortly Before Noon**

**Dreams and Thoughts**

The flowers seemed fantastically beautiful, fluttering gracefully in the quiet, soothing breeze, preserving the life and hope of the future. The smell of mist could be sensed all around from the gentle thundering sound of a waterfall close by. No one could miss the glorious presence of the cherry blossoms surrounding the meadow with grass that came up only to the knees of his dark, pale green cargo pants, hiding his black athletic shoes. The sun shined bright on his short sleeved, sand tan jacket that covered most of his black T-shirt printed with an oriental dragon design and metallic gold Japanese writing on the front. He ran his semi-tanned white hand through his dark brown hair then across his neck, feeling a small sweat. Though he was five eleven and a half, he still felt insignificant against the grand forest. "If only it were real…" He thought and then heard the sound, the growl, and knew it was time.

Alex, opening his eyes, standing tall and firm, pointed straight ahead and commanded, "Luxray! Shockwave attack!"

The canine in front stood three feet at the shoulder, supporting a large head with long fur spiked out in the back of its head. Its large yellow eyes with red whites gleamed a piercing gaze across the field. From its pink nose on, it had navy blue fur on top of its snout to match the color that dominated its head, long haired mane, front legs, long haired rump, upper hind legs, and tail. A cyan blue occupied its cheeks and jaw, rounded ears, torso including underbelly, and lower hind legs. On the bottom of its front legs, on the joint above its paws, it had an interesting strip of cyan blue divided by three yellow stripe markings that flickered with sparks. The tail was long and thin, tipped with a clump of brilliant yellow fur that was spiked into a four pointed star.

"Laaaarx aux." It bellowed, letting every bit of yellow on its body begin to glow fiercely, holding its mouth open and straight ahead at the titanic foe ahead, marching closer on its four spider legs. It was a shiny metallic blue. The central body was like a short cylinder with a cone on top with the top half lopped off. The bottom part of the cylinder piece was an upside down cone with the smaller half cut off and the base having a smaller radius then cylinder's. A silver X lay on the front of its face, hugging body with the bottom ends finishing with jagged teeth, immediately below the central cylinder. Within the left and right open ends of the X were two crimson red eyes having a vertically elongated pupil. The body was suspended above the ground by four massive legs, evenly distributed in a circular formation about the head, each connected with a ball joint on the upper cone section. The two jointed legs began with a rather tiny, long, perfectly cylinder piece but then the second joint began with a tall, massive cone arcing slightly back towards the body, possessing all sorts of large bulges and indentions about the cone with a cylinder for the base of the leg. Every time it raised its leg to move, it revealed three sharp, silver triangular claws in a circular pattern, giving it proper grip to move. Metagross approached.

Electric bolts began jumping around in Luxray's mouth till they became so concentrated that all one could see was a ball of light. Luxray launched the ball from its mouth, zipping across the field, landing a direct hit on Metagross's head, causing lightning bolts to arc all around its body. The creature flinched, its red eyes fading out since it had no eyelids to close. It took a few steps back, its eyes reappearing, and then opened up its mouth like a sliding door on its lower cone section, having two fangs on the "door" and two on the "jaw". An inorganic, deep sounding roar bellowed from its mouth, sweeping the landscapes. Suddenly, a metal sphere shot from its mouth like a cannon ball towards Luxray. It jumped out of the way as the ball hit the ground and bounced pass with a heavy thud.

Alex gave his second order, "Luxray! Prepare yourself with Charge." He had always loved the feeling of authority, a commander of Pokémon creatures; a trainer.

Luxray crouched its entire body close to the ground, sparks jumping across its long hairs like static electricity, and markings glowing like the sun. Metagross began a charging run towards Luxray, its weight seeming to make the earth shake. Alex scrambled to think of the next command then spoke, "Luxray, circle Metagross and hit it with Spark attack." As he said that, he mimicked the path of the attack he wanted with his hands.

The Pokémon bolted off in a wide arc around Metagross who had to come to almost a complete stop to try and turn to keep Luxray in front. Luxray raced in from behind and jumped onto its foes head, sending a pulse of electricity into Metagross through its pads and claws. Metagross roared and reared up onto its back two legs, sending Luxray sliding off onto the ground, unable to get any traction on the metal body.

Metagross was a psychic, able to detect its surrounds without a terrible need to use its eyes, despite how inefficient the power was. It raised the leg closest to Luxray and slammed it down as Luxray darted out of the way. It moved about ten feet from Metagross and stopped. Alex commanded, just as Metagross jumped and spun to face Luxray, "Now, Charge Beam!" A web of bolts ran up Luxray's legs, along its body, up its neck, around its muzzle and became a large bright beam, quickly approaching Metagross as it opened its maw and launched an eerie black blob straight towards Luxray. The beam connected with the blob, hastily deteriorated the electricity, and continued its course to the target. Luxray jumped over the passing blob that exploded into a black fire when it hit the ground.

Opening its mouth in quick succession, Metagross fired another blob from its mouth, this time a deep purple gunk that spawned bubbles at it flew through the air. Alex quickly commanded, "Thunder Fang attack!" With that, Luxray ran under the blob just in time, getting a small amount of slime on its hind legs as it exploded. Luxray's teeth flickered with electricity as it snarled its mouth, closing in on Metagross as it reared on its rear legs, letting its front two be surrounded by a glowing purple aura. It slammed its legs into the ground. The earth ruptured and shifted with some parts collapsing, others up heaving. Luxray weaved through the shifting slabs, carefully keeping its balance. Alex added, "Aim for the metal X on its face!"

A fissure opened in front of Luxray, prompting it to jump over. As it landed, Metagross took a heavy swing nearly horizontal to the ground. Luxray jumped onto the leg, finding enough traction to make another jump onto the face, latching its teeth onto the X. The discharge was incredible, sending large bolts of lightning high into the sky. Luxray held its bite for a few seconds, and then leapt back to the ground from the stunned Metagross.

"Luxray! Withdraw!" Shouted Alex, prompting it to do so. Metagross's eyes had a red swirly insignia on them, followed by a plain horizontal red line, and then finally returning to its normal eyes. It bellowed another metallic roar and suddenly jumped high into the air toward Luxray. It ran backwards out of the way as Metagross shook the earth as it came down.

"Quickly Luxray! Your finale, Thunder attack!" It made a long jump back, electricity flying wildly from its entire glowing body. It roared, sending several bolts of lightning high into the air, that arced and struck down Metagross in a massive explosion, sending up earth, grass, and a wall of smoke towards Luxray.

"This battle is won." Said Alex, proudly, putting on hand on his hip and a smile on his face. Luxray looked back at Alex and cried, "Aray aray!" Alex paused, taking in the feeling of his victory but after several seconds, Luxray loudly cried, "LUX!" Returning its look to the smoke. Metagross's leg swung out of the smoke and hit Luxray in the side, sending it airborne into a tree. Luxray hit on its side then collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

Alex slapped his hands on his cheeks and yelled, "Aaah! Noooo!" He sprinted for Luxray till he was standing over it, trying to figure out how this could happen.

A voice that seemed to come from nowhere sounded, "Luxray is unable to battle! The winner is Metagross!"

Alex put his hand on his face and muttered, "But this battle was mine…" He looked up at the sky, which began to turn a pitch black at one point, spread out till it met the horizon, and rushed over the landscape, turning everything except Alex into a wire frame of light. Then the environment faded into blackness, Alex remaining standing on nothingness, till eventually he blackened out.

He opened his eyes to see the ceiling of a room, feeling the helmet and wires attached to his head and body. Alex sat up and started detaching the equipment from his body. A voice came from behind the table. "Well, that is what you get for setting the difficulty level of this new game too high." The man laughed, standing up from behind a chair, taking off a microphone headset, and setting it on the keyboard of the computer he had been sitting in front of.

"I just had to try Jason." Said Alex to the tall, muscular man. "I do not feel I improve much by batting with easy and weak Pokémon. It is time I go beyond all those kitty battles."

Jason ran his hand through his short blond hair, brushed off his plaid T-shirt of dandruff, and rested his hand beside his blue jeans. "Well, it's kinda understandable. You play that game all the time in your free time. Your family tradition of not becoming a trainer till your late teens is so strange. You know, seventy percent of the world's population of boys and girls at the age of twelve become Pokémon trainers of some type or another and look at you. You are eighteen and have never had a Pokémon of your own."

"I get plenty of experience tending to Professor Maple's Pokémon and playing these games. It is those little tikes who are doing it all wrong. Setting out into the world with hardly any education of today's society. They only do well because so much of today's goods and services are free or are paid for by those kid's parents." Alex put his hand on his chest proudly and said, "At least my family believes in a proper education on surviving both the environment and society before running off into world of today."

"Ha!" Jason chuckled. "Well, I set out as a trainer when I was twelve and I fared just fine, just like tens of thousands of new trainers worldwide. Anyways, you learn so much worthless crud in school." He shrugged. "Like algebra." Then he went into a sarcastic voice. "When am I going to need to use letters in math when I go to the store to buy Pokéballs or potions?" He looked away confidently and added, "Or what about chemistry and physics? I couldn't care less about atoms and calculating inertia. They don't help me worth a darn. Besides, I'm in construction. All I need is a good balance, pencil, and paper and I can build great things."

Alex grinned. "Humph, that is just because you happen to be able to do it all in your head without math. Any other person needs to know how to solve for variables, proportions, and angles to do truly extraordinary buildings."

"Well, what's so ordinary about the house you live in? It's survived dozens of storms since it was built by me." Jason made a proud pointing at himself with his thumb. "It keeps you high and dry, and that is all you need." He laughed.

"The point of studying math and science is probably not so much what you are learning but how you are learning the material. I have learned how to problem solve quite well outside of math such as learning how effective certain characteristics of Pokémon are against other characteristics, well beyond the obvious such as water effective against fire and electric against water."

"Waste of time." Jason laughed again. "What faster way then to learn it in the field." He waved his finger at Alex. "Studying in a room is nothing like being out in the wilderness with your very own companion Pokémon. Studying does not prepare you for what it's like to have a companion that you need to care for, even when it is beaten into critical condition."

Alex knew he was losing the argument like he always did and concluded with, "This is a pointless debate. Neither of us prevails over the other." He shrugged.

Jason made his way for the door, "Well, I better get back to work. It is still nice to tutor you in battles, even if they are fake. That video game is just so realistic. I can't believe the things they come out with these days. Still a waste of time though." He laughed and exited.

Alex sat in his chair by his desk alone in his bedroom. He sighed and gazed at walls filled with photographs, magazine cut outs, and drawings he made of Pokémon around the world he loved to look at. No one knew how many Pokémon existed in the world. At least over five hundred and fifty. More than half of them he had never seen or heard of before. "Pokémon." Such an odd and dorky name for a race of animals that have become so integral to today's society.

Memories of not just the battle he just had, but countless before he had simulated. All they were for was to see who could do the best at bonding to and raising these creatures. Battles were just organized competition for not just thrills but also for developing the human spirit, more than simply the Pokémon itself. The thought of simply having a creature as a pet to keep you company when one got home from a day's activity would be quite dull.

Alex picked up a small black fox figure with yellow markings and gazed at it. The competitions were violent and dangerous, but that was how the world had developed. Some day in the future, society might look to the world of this day and wonder why people did such activities. Society evolves but that takes time. He shifted the figure until its intense red, plastic eyes gazed into his. All one can do today is live with and adapt to the views of society at the present, no matter how illogical they are.

He turned to his desk and looked at all the books piled about it with titles like: Introduction to Calculus, Essentials of Physics, Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones, and Principles of Natural Disasters to name a few. Alex sighed and thought, "Is this all worth it? Should I even be touching the academic world if I want to be a trainer? What good is integration towards Pokémon conditioning? Or what about thermodynamics towards berry potion making?" He flipped through the Natural Disasters book and continued, "Maybe this has some use. After all, these lands are plagued by more natural disasters than any other region on the planet. Understanding these phenomena is key to survival here."

Alex returned the book to its neat stack, picked up a pencil and fiddled with it in his hands, gazing at the pictures again. He wondered what they were really like. What would his first Pokémon he would acquire and train to be his companion be like? Alex put the pencil down, rose, and made his way for the door, still deep in thought.

After opening the door to his room, he maneuvered through the simply furnished home, till he reached the home's entrance. Opening the door, his gaze fell upon the many buildings that made up the colony of Hurricane Bay.


	2. Ch 2 Heart with Fire

**Alex**

**July 8, 798 UNE Noon**

**Heart with Fire**

Alex descended the stairs leading to the ground. All of the buildings of the bay colony stood on stilts at least twenty feet in the air. An area, as the name suggests, frequently ravaged by hurricanes demanded as many measures to protect the homes and facilities scattered about beach as possible. Measures included shatter resistant glass to defend against debris piercing into the buildings, stilts to avoid storm surge and large waves, and wind resistant roofing construction. All those things were about to be tested once again very soon against the approaching storm, Major Hurricane Anita . The landfalls where becoming routine even though each named storm, like its name, had its own personality over the twenty months the colony had been established.

Looking across to a neighboring home, Alex saw Jason already on the ball with drilling panels over window. Alex looked a little further up the beach to see the science laboratory of the colony, headed by Professor Maple. Performing various jobs there, Alex naturally felt more in tune with Pokémon there rather than in the simulator despite the highly realistic feel it had. It was time for him to check in for an assignment, probably the last before the storm hit. Alex glanced at the sky. Not a cloud in sight but the waves were growing larger. Before he could advance, a hand reached out and grabbed him on the shoulder, startling him.

"Hey Alex." Came a pleasant, young, soothing female voice. Alex flinched as he heard it. He turned to see a pretty fifteen year old girl, dressed in an exotic dress that possessed tie on flared sleeves, tub top, and long skirt colored with a random pattern of light and dark tan and slightly neutralized green and teal. Her long brown hair fluttered in the small breeze with some individual hairs squirming across her smooth, unblemished face with green eyes.

Alex pushed her hand away and scolded, "Crystal, you know I do not like to be surprised like that." He crossed his arms and frowned.

"If you'd only pay more attention to what's going on around you wouldn't be such a scaredy cat." She said with a hint of command in her voice.

"I usually have more important things to be thinking about instead of looking over my shoulder at every passing minute." Alex turned his back to her and started walking off. Suddenly Crystal came up from behind and wrestled him to the sand playfully and laughed. "I do not have time for this!" Alex growled, shoving her off to his side. "Grow up." He rose and batted at his clothes to get the sand off. "And NO, I still do not want anything to do with you in a relationship." A humph escaped his mouth.

"I didn't say anything about wanting to date you so where did that come from?" She sounded aggravated. "You're so paranoid, thinking everyone is out to get you over every little thing that happens to you." Crystal rose and dusted herself off. "It was just ONE time I asked."

"I do not have time for this conversation."

"You already said that."

"I KNOW. I said it again for emphasis." Crystal stuck her tongue at him as he said that. "Anyways, do you not have that stupid ceremony to attend to?" He said, eyeing her clothes.

"Arrrg!" She yelled. "How many times do I have to tell you it's not stupid?!" She caught the attention of several workers wondering about the colony nearby. Alex felt so embarrassed and smacked his hand in his face. "The Hurricane festival is very important. How'd you think the colony has done so well with all the storms that have passed through? All we're doing is asking for the blessing of nature."

"It is just religious nonsense." Alex growled. "Only proper education and technology prepares us for the worst nature throws at us. Plus the time spent doing that party could be better spent preparing for the storm."

Something round and soft bumped into his legs from behind and Alex turned to look. A round, ball like creature with great big round eyes looking innocent caught his gaze, nearly mesmerizing. Its height came up to his crotch, not including the fox ears perched on top with a collection of very pale pink, like its body, hairs forming a single curly clump. On either side of its mouth were two stubby arms that were more like single fingers, having no hands. Alex was someone familiar with the creature's architecture in that much of the roundness about its body was like a balloon and the major components of the body were all at the center of the balloon body. It meant the short stubby fingers had a wide range of motion on its body as the skin stretched since they were arms within the balloon. It stood on two toeless feet, structured similarly to arms. "Puuurfa!" It sang in a short melody closing its eyes, its voice irresistible to listen to.

"So Alex Jakubowski thinks our wonderful dancing and singing is nonsense Jigglypuff." Crystal said, then pointed at the balloon creature and added, "What'd you think about that?"

"Peeerf!" Bellowed Jigglypuff, inflating its self larger then before with its face turning a little red and anger appearing in its teal eyes.

"Careful what you say Alex, Jigglypuff might slap you silly."

"Yah… right." Alex muttered, giving a slight push of the puff as he moved by toward the laboratory, not looking back. "Just wait till I have my own Pokémon."

Crystal said in a singing voice, "Oh Alex, you know, all those video games and studying does not make you better then the three years I've been a trainer. I'll beat you whenever and with whatever you challenge me to a battle."

Alex fretted under his breath as he climbed the stairs, thinking, "Training and battling are not that much different than the textbooks and field studies. I would just need maybe a month or so to get used to the real thing." He made his way to the door and entered. Inside he found an old man sitting in a roller chair by a computer, enthralled in a screen of numbers, equations and graphs, most of which Alex could not understand. The old timer had mildly long grey hair only on the sides of his head, being bald on top and a little grey mustache under his nose. Correcting his eyes were a pair of glasses that he wore all the time to help with his shortsightedness. Traditional laboratory attire was his clothing of choice; a white jacket, tucked in tan button up shirt with a pen, pencil, and a calculator in its chest pocket, dark brown pants, and black shiny shoes.

Alex entered without him noticed and said, "I am here Professor Maple."

Maple looked back and waved with a "Hello Alex." and rose to face him. "A few minutes after noon, you are a little late, not typical of you." He reached for his cane and made his way across the room crowded with tables and equipment.

"Mom got me a new video game, the finest on the market, with her grant money. It was a nice surprise. I just had to try it right away." He scratched his head. "And it kicked my fanny too."

Maple laughed, "At least you had some fun it seems." He made it to a table, picked up a tiny ball, and made his way towards Alex. "I have a very important task for you today, Alex. But first, I want to make sure you are up to it. Some of these questions may seem easy or redundant but I have to be certain you are prepared for the task. It has probably been a while since you have thought of this but why are we here on the Annila Continent, the forbidden land of the world?"

Alex paused for a moment, hoping he was putting together a good enough answer, suspicious of the Professor's intensions with asking such common knowledge facts of the colonists. He decided to be safe to thrown in a little history to the answer. "The Annila Region is known as the forbidden land of the planet because of human tragedy long ago. In 14 UNE, a large group of people, among them some of the finest trainers in the world, set out to establish a colony on the southeastern coasts of Annila, a land known for ferocious native Pokémon that brutally killed or savagely drove off any human inhabitants that landed anywhere on the continent. No word was heard from the South Shell Sea Colony for about a year, prompting an investigation. What explorers found were the remains of thousands of bodies, human and Pokémon alike and became known as the South Shell Massacre. The news raced like wildfire across the newly formed United Nations and in 17 UNE, laws were passed by all major nation members to ban all exploration of the Annila region for fear of another disaster. Those that ignored the laws and made their way to Annila were either never heard from again or returned with severe psychological disorders that oddly showed consistent patterns of diagnosis depending on which part of the region they visited."

Starting to pace, Alex was hoping the words to throw his answer all together were coming. "The laws stood the test of time till 796 UNE when a group of Pokémon researches rallied together to promote the repealing of the laws in several countries and for the allowance of another colonization attempt of Annila. Time passed and eventually the laws were upheld but an exception was given to the ecstatic researchers and a onetime colonization attempt would be allowed but only when proper inspection of their resources to protect the inhabitants from the expected wrath of the wilderness. After a few months, an electric fence barrier system was designed and approved, calling for the colonization of the southwestern beaches of Annila where no aerial flying Pokémon were recorded to attack. There was a recruitment of volunteer civilians to help in the maintenance of the colony with my mom being one of those volunteers, wanting to help with minor agricultural interests behind the fences."

Alex paused, looking at Professor Maples whose eyes gave the message that more was needed. A great sense of something important was going on come from the Professor and that he might be furious if Alex proved inadequate. He continued, "In 796 UNE we departed for and arrived at Hurricane Bay. Immediately there we scrambled to set up the defenses. When that went without incident we constructed more permanent housing to withstand the frequent hurricanes that passed through the area. Luckily that went through without a hitch. What surprised the colonists was that there were no sightings of any vicious Pokémon. As the months past, explorers became bolder and went further and further into the nearby Windy Woods. Reports of seeing Pokémon of any kind were scarce and we concluded that the so called vicious Pokémon were but lies or legends or simply the Pokémon no longer existed. Still, that did not make the explorers brave enough to go beyond the woods." He turned to Maple, scratched his head and said, "Is that good enough?"

Professor Maple wagged his head and said, "Not quite. What were the researchers and explorers so interested in?"

"Oh, oops." Alex half flinched and smacked his palm on his forehead. "The Annila region is known in mythology as the cradle of life, the origin of good and light and evil and darkness, and the promised land of Pokémon most in harmony with nature. It was the 'cradle of life' part that intrigued scientists the most and brought about the push to colonize Annila. They wanted to know if there were parts of the region that affected biology of Pokémon more or differently than other continents."

"Satisfactory." Now he stood in front of Alex, hand held out holding the ball. It had a red northern and white southern hemisphere with a black indented equator dividing the two hemispheres. On the part of the ball closest to Alex was a white button bordered by the black. The Professor tapped the button with one of his fingers like he had done it a million times before and the ball tripled in size till it took up the palm of his hand. "What is this that I am holding?"

Alex gazed at the ball with a grin, knowing something was wrong with this picture. Anyone on the planet knew what that was. Only those in some backwater society that shunned the world would not know what it was. Instinctively, Alex sensed a trick question and that Professor Maple wanted more than a one world answer.

"It is a Pokéball, a Pokémon containment unit for efficient storage and transport. It turns the Pokémon into light using special components that are still not fully understood on how they fit into general physics and stores the light energy like a computer stores memory. When the Pokéball is reactivated to release the Pokémon, the ball reconverts the Pokémon from light data to its original physical form. The conversion process can be traumatic to seriously injured Pokémon and is not recommended for use in such situations." Alex stopped, hoping that would suffice since he could not think of anything else to add. It was not often he talked about the Pokéball itself much less actually handled one. After all, who really cared about the science? The ball was just like a computer. Highly advanced and difficult to understand on a scientific level yet used by the majority of the population.

Maple stroked his mustache and said, "Satisfactory. But since trainers do not terribly need to know the background and functions of Pokéballs, you would not need to know the real specifics. Now I can tell you of the task at hand. I have already talked to your mother about this and she reluctantly gave me permission to issue it to you." The Professor took Alex's right hand and set the Pokéball on it, saying, "From this day forward, this is yours. A Pokémon that I have already taught to obey you as trainer. You will take it from there to help it become your closest companion."

Alex's eyes were wide. His hands sweated, mouth watered, and heart pounded. "Could it be?" He thought. "That maybe, I will have my friend I always dreamed of." It was so sudden to have this presented to him. That maybe, all his hard work of studying finally paid off.

His pointer finger shook as it came closer and closer to the button. Finally, the two connected. The hatch along the equator of the ball flipped open and a stream of light flowed from the ball and came to the ground till it formed a blob of light. The ball closed.

"What Pokémon could it be?" Alex mind tripped on.

The light then shifted into a silhouette of a small, four legged creature with a somewhat large head. Then, the light faded into the creature, giving it true dimension to the world. The creature was a reddish-orange. It had three large curls of a lighter reddish orange then the rest of the body, excluding the six tails with curls on the tips, growing from the top of its head. It had darker reddish orange legs starting halfway down the legs, comparable to socks.

The fox-like creature raised its head and with eyes wide open cried, "Vul, vul!"

Alex gasped. "A Vulpix!"

The creature ran to him and jumped into his arms and cried "Vuuull."

"Yes Alex." Spoke Maple. "The Pok_é_mon Vulpix. I knew you had a special place in your heart for those that walked on four legs so I choose this one to give to you. I have already changed ownership over to you, and that Vulpix realizes that. She is now yours." Maple smiled and then headed for a white table having a glass panel covering its entire surface. Various tools accompanied by items that functioned like Pokéballs only for small objects scattered about it.

"Wow!" Exclaimed Alex. "A Pokémon of my own, and not just any one, a Vulpix! One of my favorites that I have studied. With a gift like this, I will try any crazy request you ask of me no matter how dangerous." As soon as he said that, he wanted to take the words back, setting down Vulpix. He did not know why, but an uneasy feeling crept across his mind. "Umm… what is the task you want me to do?"

"Well, I have come to the conclusion that a certain flower in the Windy Woods holds a special evolutionary property that I wish to study. There is a problem however. The material that is wanted only gains its properties when the flower blooms during a wind driven rain storm, one that cannot be imitated. The arrival of Hurricane Anita should prompt the flowers' blooming and I want you to be there when it happens. There is another catch however. The material will lose its properties if it is not kept in the life aura of the flower ooooor a Pokémon. Get the picture?"

Alex nodded but asked, "That means going into the woods. Sure no one has been attacked but sending me there? Why? Why me and not someone more mature and experienced?" He did not want to sabotage his involvement in a task with Vulpix but his repeating of the history of Annila to the Professor unnerved him."

"Because I feel you deserve to finally become that trainer you have always wanted to be. Of course you will not be able to do much in terms of competing in battles with other trainers for sport such as on the mainland continents like Kanto or Sinnoh. You will instead get experience performing basic care of Vulpix here such as feeding, exercising, and maintaining of her health. As for the mission, we have had enough activity in the woods to know that no terrible creature should attack you." Maple began examining the items on the table. "As a part of your mission, I will be assigning this backpack to you filled with tools for weathering Anita."

"That is right, will I not be endanger by Anita? It is a major hurricane and that is no push over storm."

Professor Maple reached for a folded map, opened it up and gestured for Alex to look at it up close. "This is a map of Southwest Annila, based off of aerial and space observations." He pointed to what looked to be the east side of a mountain. "Right here is a cave named The Gale Hole. You can ride out the storm here and about fifty feet away from the entrance is a field of the unnamed flowers."

Alex nodded, and then turned his attention to Vulpix who started rubbing her head against his leg affectionately. "Vuuul." She uttered cheerfully. He could feel her warmth since she was a Pokémon that could manipulate and store fire with her body.

"Here is another item of importance though I wonder how useful it will be for your task." Professor Maple said, picking up a red electronic device, flipping it open to reveal it to be a type of Blackberry. "This is a Pokédex. What it does, is that when you point this at a Pokémon, such as one you have never encountered before, it scans the Pokémon, analyzes it, and reports information to you. As amazing as this sounds, it can even do this for Pokémon that have never been discovered before. It can do this because it scans the Pokémon's genetics along with other individual values and formulates a conclusion about it, taking in information about history such as mythology, developing its reply, even assigning a name that is often based off of its cry. It is an automatic encyclopedia that is used universally throughout the world. Quite a remarkable scientific achievement."

Alex muttered a wow as the Professor handed it to him. "Keep this on you at all times. You never know when you might need it when you are searching through the bush." After placing the Pokédex in his hand pocket, Maple began running through the other survival items including the first aid kit, a foraging survival guide, and food and water bowls for Vulpix. Once the review was over, Alex was short on time and needed to leave right away for the Windy Woods with Vulpix, not allowing for time to show the others of the colony his new comrade.


	3. Ch 3 Adumbrated Thunder

**Vulpix**

**July 8, 798 UNE Afternoon**

**Adumbrated Thunder**

She started sniffing the leaves of a bush as soon as they reached the forest trees right off the bay. A faint odor of other Pokémon lingered there, maybe a day or two old. Vulpix moved to a tree and sniffed, smelling urine all over the bark. It was even older smelling. She looked back to see Master Alex still marching in the sand behind.

"My you sure are anxious to go on an adventure Vulpix." Alex said. He took a look behind and Vulpix did the same. Dark clouds were gathering far on the horizon. Her acute hearing allowed her to pick up on faint thunder long after a flicker from the clouds. "I guess the outer rain bans of Anita are nearly here."

"I think so too." Said Vulpix in her own little cries Master Alex would not be able to understand.

Alex continued on with Vulpix running ahead and sniffing anything that looked out of the ordinary from her past experiences or that looked suspicious. She felt an incredible urge to protect Master Alex as most other Pokémon under the command of a trainer would want to do. Vulpix sniffed some odd mushrooms then sniffed along a path. She could smell a similar scent across the ground as if one of those mushrooms had grown paws and padded itself away with the tracks still fresh. Following the scent, she moved further and further away from Alex.

"Do not wonder away too far Vulpix." Master Alex said. She could sense a bit of nervousness in his voice, probably from the conversation he and her former master had had about the evil Pokémon that hunted humans and their Pokémon in the woods. But Vulpix was not too worried. She felt confident that she could take on any single Pokémon that got in their way and the scents did not reveal mass movements of Pokémon together.

Suddenly Vulpix heard some rustling of brush up ahead and she darted off to investigate. "Wait! Vulpix! Come back!" Master Alex hollered and started to run after her. Vulpix just had to see what it was in case there was any danger. The area where she heard the noise was empty but the musty scent was strong of a Pokémon. She looked closely and saw a dark brown hair or two along with a very light tan long hair.

"Master Alex!" She barked. "There was a Pokémon just here!"

Alex finally caught up, wheezing a little. "Is something wrong Vulpix? Did you hear something?" He looked around, half frantically.

"Don't worry Master Alex! I can protect you from anything!" She was hopping up and down on her four legs.

Alex looked her in the eyes and said, "You sure seem wound up over something. Settle down." He raised his hand to his chin and rubbed it a little. "If something happens and you find yourself alone without me around, I hope you make the best judgment on what to do. Just do not try to focus on looking around for me but rather fight back or run. I may be your trainer but I would rather not have to be in full command over you when I may not know better or you do not need my authority."

Vulpix bobbled her head. "Ok Master Alex, whatever you tell me, I'll do. I was not Maple's Pokémon for nothing!" She turned away and started sniffing for the scent again and followed it but to no avail in finding anything.

A quiet two hours passed without much incident, just more scents and sunny weather but that was quickly deteriorating as the storm clouds passed over darkening the skies like an eclipse. "We are almost there Vulpix." Said Alex, reading over his waterproof map. It is not terribly far from the beach and according to Professor Maple it should be out of the storm surge zone, even for a category three storm with a small circulation."

Vulpix was not sure what was meant by "storm surge" or "category three" so she just assumed they were something bad. Not dwelling about it, she carried on, picking up on the scent of something sweet. She tracked the scent to a bush full of berries. They were small round berries with two tiny green leaves sticking out of the top where they attached to the bush limb. The top half of the berry was a light reddish orange and the lower was a pale yellow.

She plucked one with her jaws and chomped it letting the wonderful taste filler her mouth. After a few chews she swallowed, wanting more. Master Alex caught up and examined the bush, concluding, "I think this is a Leppa berry bush." He tried one but did not seem to be totally satisfied like Vulpix. "Not my favorite. I am more partial to Pecha berries but that is fine.

"Well, I like them so you can't spoil my snack!" Exclaimed Vulpix, beginning to gnaw on another berry.

"You seem to like them, soooo…" He searched through his backpack and pulled out a containment ball, activated it and in a flash of light appeared a bag of various pouches. "…we could use this berry bag to store some. We could snack on some later in the cave." He picked a little more than a dozen and deposited them into a single pouch. Master Alex then stood up and looked around then pointed to another bush in the distance and said, "What luck, a Pecha berry bush!" He scrambled his items up and made his way over to the bush.

Vulpix trotted ahead and plucked one. Her eyes started to water. She could not believe how sweet it was. "This is wonderful!" She thought, racing for another one.

"I see you like those too." Alex grinned and began foraging some. "You seem to like them even more then the Leppa berries, just as I thought you would."

Something rustled in the distance. Vulpix looked quickly to see a long furry pale tan creature with large brown stripes. She growled and dart off after it. The creature fled away, faster than Vulpix could move.

"Vulpix!" Master Alex yelled. "Come back! You do not know what is out there!" He stayed put, not wanting to leave his stuff behind.

She lost track of her target, giving up the chase and not wanting to run too much further away from her Master. "I will get you eventually whoever you are!" She barked and made her way back to Alex. She could smell the scent, identical to the scent she smelled earlier with the long fur hairs.

"Vulpix." Said Master Alex in a cross tone. "You need to stop running off like that." He looked around. "I just, do not want to be by myself here in these woods. They are giving me a bad vibe."

She nodded. As she did, she started to feel raindrops making their way through the forest canopy. Vulpix groaned, not terribly fond of being wet for the fire elemental creature she was.

"Oh what is wrong with you? It is just a little rain." Alex said, finishing repacking his things and began moving forward towards the cave. Vulpix tried shaking herself off but to no avail with the additional falling rain.

A half hour passed before Vulpix heard more rustling, louder then what the rain was making on the bushes. She growled, trying to make as many body gestures as she could to earn permission to go after the sound.

"I heard it too Vulpix." Alex started to go into a jog. "Let us go see what that was. Does not sound like anything large moving around."

Vulpix could hear something coming closer and stopped, holding her ground, growling. Master Alex stopped right behind her looking around carefully. There was another loud rustle and out bolted something small and brown towards the two. It was a quadruped just a bit smaller then Vulpix with a slightly smaller proportioned head. Long ears extended from its head and had a light tan mane around its neck to contrast with its brown body and complimented its light tan fox tail tip.

"No way!" Alex shouted. "An Eevee! A young one at that. Ok Vulpix, let us take it down and maybe recruit it!" The memory flashed though Vulpix's mind of humans "catching" Pokémon with those ball things.

Master Alex did not have time to give a command before the Eevee was upon Vulpix. She heeded Alex's command to act out of her own will when he did not have time to issue his order. The Eevee went into a tackle and Vulpix swung her body around and collided her tails at Eevee knocking it away and into the ground.

"Alright Vulpix! Now hit it with Ember attack."

She summoned a flurry of small flames to her mouth and released them at point black range on Eevee. It cried out as its fur was singed and made a run for it.

"Now, Quick Attack!" Said Alex pointing enthusiastically at their target.

Vulpix took off with incredible speed, catching up quickly and ramming the little fox in the side tumbling it to the ground. She could tell this little one was inexperienced and did not really know how to properly defend itself.

Running to catch up, Alex hollered, "Hit it again with Ember attack!" Vulpix did so, baptizing the small creature in flames. It tried to run away again, its fur smoking and collapsed a few feet away from Vulpix.

"Alright! Let us see if this works." Master Alex reached for a Pokéball attached to his specialized trainer's belt. "If how I studied this correctly, tossing an empty Pokéball at it registers its genetic information when it comes in contact with a Pokémon without the data signature in its body, making its possession to that ball and in the end, mine. It then gives it the impression of my invitation to become my comrade or something like that. Not sure how that all works."

He passionately hurled the ball at Eevee. Before ball came in contact with it, something shot through the air and knocked the Pokéball away, causing it to land aimlessly in a bush.

"Huh?" Alex wondered. Vulpix detected more creatures out in the woods up ahead, maybe in the tree tops. She moved past the sizzling Eevee closer to a tree, growling. "Vulpix, do you think something else is here?"

The sound of a laughing man and women came from the treetops. Followed by the woman saying, "Prepare for trouble!"

Then the man's voice sounded. "Make it double!"

"Wha?!" Alex shouted. "Who is there?"

The woman's voice came again. "To protect the world from devastation!" Vulpix could tell they were coming closer.

"To unite all people within our nation!" Came the man's voice.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" The woman's voice said followed by a quick laugh.

"To extend our reach to the stars above!" The man's tone seemed proud and exaggeratedly passionate.

Suddenly, a woman descended from a tree about two dozen feet away, laughing, putting her hand on the hip of her white mini-skirt. She wore thigh high purple boots with small heels. Her top was a white belly shirt that had an upside down V cut revealing a tight black belly shirt underneath. The V cut was in such a way to divide the two legs of a large red "R". Her shirt covered her upper arms and then was covered up by long purple gloves. She had a very distinctive red hairstyle that would have gone down to her knees had her hair not been so heavily altered into a bit of a curl becoming more distinct near the tip. Her face was pleasantly clear and white with two teal ball earrings dangling from her ears and lucid blue eyes. "Jessie!" She exclaimed.

Then a man off to the right jumped down, his shoulder long bluish purple hair bellowing in the wind, seemingly untouched by the falling rain and assumed a mirror pose to presumably Jessie. He had a more tan skin complexion but like the woman, he possessed an unblemished face. He wore a long sleeved shirt that barely went over his stomach with a black shirt tucked into his white pants held up by a dark brown belt. Purple boots were on his feet covering the bottoms of his pants and also had nearly elbow length gloves doing the same over his shirt. Alex could not help but notice an icy blue rose in one of his hands. "James." He said proudly.

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" Said Jessie, pointing off in a random upward direction.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James said, pointing his hand with the rose directly at Master Alex.

A third, tiny figure descended from the tree in between the other two. It was a short cream hair colored feline Pokémon that stood upright, topped by its large head. It had two large eyes and a gold shiny coin on its forehead. Two thick whiskers stood straight up near its eye and two more extended from each cheek. Two short black ears stood upright on its head. It possessed a long tail that had a terra cotta colored tail tip ending in a tight curl with the ends of it paws the same color. "Meowth! That's right!"

Vulpix felt like she had a big question mark floating above her head, not completely sure about what their words meant. "Who the heck are you?" Demanded Alex. "And surrender or fight? I do not even know who you are!"

James jumped over to Jessie and hugged her. "Isn't it great? Like good old times. Old motto. Old uniforms and old schemes."

Jessie shooed James away, pointed at Master Alex and said, "Today we start anew. No more chasing that blasted Pikachu and twerp. Our new academy training gave us the skills and power we need to succeed in our first mission."

"Why do you keep pointing at me?" Alex said angrily. "What mission? What training? With who? This Team Rocket I have never heard of?"

"Now that's a shame." Said the talking Meowth. "This boy does not even know who the mighty Team Rocket is."

"Technically Meowth…" Started James, again in his proud tone, "…no one knows of the new Team Rocket. The new powerful Team Rocket. The unstoppable Team Rocket. The invincible Team Rocket." This James person showed great passion and devotion to his words. Vulpix wanted to laugh at how weird he was if only she could. She looked back at Alex who was scratching his head with confusion.

"Well, let's tell this new twerp what our mission is." Laughed Jessie, her sound eclipsed as a roar of thunder came from lightning.

"Team Rocket's going to move in and sack that colony of yours and take the people captive." Said James, trying to sound ruthless but failing fast. "It's remained a threat to our operations long enough."

"What?!" Yelled Alex, his words swallowed up by more thunder. "What did we ever do to you? I am sure my friends there have never heard of you!"

"Perhaps, but that is too risky." Said Meowth. "Team Rocket's goal of world domination must not be hindered." He turned to Jessie. "Just think guys! All the wealth and Pokémon of the world just waiting to be plucked for our taking!"

"Ah, what a dream and it is truly within our grasp." Said Jessie, raising her hands to the side of her face as if she was lying on a pillow while standing up.

"You are all crazy!" Bellowed Alex, still displaying difficulty accepting their words. "World domination? Do you know how many trainers are out there to battle and stop you?"

"Oh we know alright." There seemed to be a gleam in James eyes as he said that. "You'll see soon enough after we have taken you captive." He reached for one of three Pokéballs on his belt. Jessie did the same, picking from her three attached to the back of her mini-skirt.

Vulpix noticed the Eevee had escaped during the ruckus. "Well, if it is a battle you want, then I accept your challenge to fight, right Vulpix?" Rallied Master Alex. She spat a small fireball out of her mouth, creating a sizzling sound in the rain, which was trickling off to a sprinkle.

"Alright, let's get started." Said Jessie with a bit of song to her words as she flung her Pokéball out in front of her. It released a flash of light that took the form of a great snake. Two massive red fangs, nearly a foot long each extended from its upper mouth. It had a yellow jaw to compliment its dark purple scales that made up most of its color scheme. A yellow hexagon pattern with a black circle outline in the middle appeared on its forehead and the pattern appeared repeatedly down its spine to its long, narrow, triangular sword tipped tail with a red boarder on one of the sharp ends. It had a yellow pattern surrounding the area between the blood red eyes and the hexagon pattern. Taking up the rest of the nose and below the eyes was a light purple coloring and once the purple went beyond the eye, pattern narrowed down to a triangular point. A nonsymmetrical, light purple line zigzagged approximately one and a half feet down its belly and three little stump pairs lined its belly, acting sort of like stubby legs on standing furniture. "Seviper! Your first mission out of the academy!"

James tossed his Pokéball in the same fashion, resulting in the same effects only his Pokémon took the form of a quadruped about the same size as Vulpix. It had an overall orange short fur coat. On the top of its canine head was a clump of very light tan, long fur that stood up a little. Its muzzle and neck were of the same color fur and the chest and belly too only with long flurry hair. It had a U shaped black marking midway on each leg with jagged edges and of course four toes with extended white claws. A repeating pattern of five consecutive U markings followed, three on its back and the remaining two on each of its hind legs. Finally a mildly long, ultra fluffy light tan tail grew from its rump. "Groooooowrith!" It howled.

"Ok Growlithe, let's be sure to get this right on our first mission together." Said James dramatically tossing his rose aside.

"So which one of you do I get to fight first?" Said Master Alex with much anticipation. Vulpix tried to ready herself as much as she could for her first battle, wondering which one would be her opponent. Inside, she was hoping for Growlithe as Seviper looked rather dangerous with its fangs and sword tail.

"Sevayerith." Spat Seviper, eager for battle also.

"Ha!" Jessie exclaimed. "We're both going to fight you at once, just as Team Rocket always has."

"What?!" Said a shocked Alex. "That is not a fair battle!"

"If you'd knew us, then you'd know that Team Rocket doesn't fight fair." Said James, giggling.

Vulpix looked back at Master Alex, seeing much frustration on his face, then returned it to Seviper particularly.

"Let's begin Seviper!" Shouted Jessie, her words slightly lost in more thunder. "Night Slash attack!"

Seviper's blade tail turned pitch black with what looked to be a black powder fluttering down from it. It slithered forward at amazing speed towards Vulpix.

"Quick, Ember attack on Seviper Vulpix!" Master Alex commanded. She did so, sending a cluster of embers up her throat and blowing them out in a stream towards Seviper.

"Growlithe, Take Down!" Shouted James with Growlithe taking off in a full charge for Vulpix.

Seviper cringed as it was hit by fire, waving its tail around in a failed attempt to stop the bombardment. "Don't let those puny flames get to you Seviper!" Shouted Jessie.

"Now, Quick Attack on Growlithe. Try to hit it from the side!" Ordered Master Alex. Vulpix disrupted the flow of embers and faced the oncoming Growlithe, muscles tightened and ready to spring. When it was nearly upon her, she made a hasty jump to the right as Growlithe began its tackle then just as quickly, head butted it from the side. Growlithe tumbled a few times as Seviper closed in an unleashed a slash whipping its tail over its head at Vulpix. She managed to jump back in time. Some of the black dust was starting to get into her eyes, dimming her sight a little. Out of order she launched another volley of Embers at Seviper, turning the black powder into a dazzling display of harmless light. Growlithe gathered itself together and tackled Vulpix in the rear bringing her right into the ground.

"Seviper! Switch to Poison Tail attack!" Commanded Jessie.

Vulpix found Growlithe on top clawing at her. She managed to get her hind legs under its lower abdomen and kicked it off to the side. A quick roll to the side allowed her to miss Seviper drilling its bright purple glowing tail into the ground where she just was. Seviper raised its tail again and began a series of slashes at Vulpix.

"See if you can hit it with Will'o'wisp!" Suggested Alex. Vulpix could recognize uncertainty in his voice as that was a bit of an advanced attack. Still dodging Seviper's slashes, she called forth in her mind how to do the attack and miraculously, her mind told her body what to do. Fire raced up her throat, considerably more intense than ever before. She quickly grounded herself as Seviper prepared another swing and released a furiously burning purple flame. It collided with Seviper's neck, prompting a hissing scream to escape its mouth followed by a flailing over the soggy ground.

"Overheat attack Growlithe!" Pointed James. The canine amassed a spewing mass of fire and embers from its mouth and expelled it in the general direction of Vulpix. The flames came in like a tidal wave and stormed Vulpix's body. She dropped herself to the ground, closed her eyes and covered he nose with her paws, trying to ride out the blaze till the misty rain put it out. She faintly heard the order for another Take Down attack to ensue.

Vulpix took courage in the flames and ran straight ahead into Growlithe. A surprised Growlithe found Vulpix's head striking its chest and the two tumbled to the ground. Vulpix quickly rose but in a swish, Seviper's tail blade sliced into her side streaming blood into the grass. The pain was catastrophic from the sting venom. She tried to rise again, but the venom was taking too quick of an effect and she stayed grounded, panting.

"That Vulpix is finished." Said Meowth. "You've lost kid."

"Vulpix no!" Shouted a horrified Alex.

"Yay! Our first victory!" Cried Jessie. "Our luck has truly changed for the better."

Vulpix could only see ahead out into the forest with none of her attackers or Master Alex in sight. She could feel herself fading away to unconsciousness. Then a peculiar sensation crept across her body. She could feel her hair starting to stand on end. Then she heard Alex yell, "Oh no! Vulpix!" He ran to her and picked her up in his arms, holding her to his chest tightly. A flash of light consumed everything Vulpix could see and a deafening boom bellowed through the area as she faded from consciousness.


End file.
